UK’s largest infrastructure project. In June 2018, High Speed 2 or HS2’s main civil contractors issued a warning. Their early estimates were showing significant cost increases. That was not a rumour. Not an anonymous complaint. Not some junior engineer being negative. It came from the contractors building the bloody thing. The project continued. Reviews followed. Committees met. Reports were written. PowerPoints were probably magnificent. As usually they are…specially when consultants are...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Unfortunately for taxpayers, many decision-makers and politicians do not understand value for money. Not a clue. And it costs taxpayers billions. Let me tell you something. A few weeks ago, I went to Auckland Zoo. As we do every time, we stopped at the shop on the way out. This time, my son became obsessed with a crappy little meerkat figurine. About 5cm tall. Pure plastic. I did not even look at the price. I was delighted. How cheap! I walked to the counter and paid. I was slightly surprised...
2 days ago • 2 min read
I can see yesterday’s email hurt. Well, yes. I’ll say it again. You will never do well in life with a PowerPoint. Not long ago, I was involved in a process where the abuse of PowerPoint should have been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Sublime charts. Flourishes everywhere. Not a single letter was out of perfect alignment with the rest of its little letter friends. Like one of those choirs that goes on The X Factor, or any of the other crap they show on...
3 days ago • 1 min read
When I was a CEO, I loved it. I would prepare a presentation. Just enough to keep the Board informed, but not too much. You wanted to avoid uncomfortable questions. Then, during the meeting, depending on how things were going, I would go deeper… or not. Always keeping one eye on the clock. Meeting over. Board satisfied. Great lunch. Then back to work to do something productive. I loved the routine. And, above all, I loved knowing that I was essential. Because that PowerPoint was always...
4 days ago • 2 min read
Look. Saying “Now is not the right time” can be perfectly reasonable. Sometimes… Although not many times. When I hear it from clients, I wonder… What exactly are you waiting for? A dispute? A claim? To have given away rights costing millions “by accident”? I don’t know… Not my personal money, so no comment. But… Of course… At one moment they come asking for help. I know that they’ll come. With some contracts, with some projects, I even have a calendar bid on when the bomb will explode…...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Look. The phrase “It’s only a letter” can be the most dangerous in PPP language. Sometimes, it genuinely is only a letter. An update. A clarification. Something routine. But sometimes, that letter gives away a position worth millions. Or… It accepts a risk nobody intended to accept. Or… It creates a precedent that will be quoted back to you two years later by someone charging $900 an hour. Or it says something perfectly reasonable… In precisely the wrong way. The problem is that you normally...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Yeah. This is what I was told recently at a networking event. “Too expensive for a poor contractor like me.” I reckon. I can be very expensive… and, on top of that… invisible. For someone managing a multibillion-dollar project, spending $500k, $1 million or $2 million to prevent problems can feel very expensive. Yeah. Until they have a $100–500 million problem. A problem that could have been prevented, or at least minimised, with the right strategies in place. Suddenly, that “expensive...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Don’t write me anymore about it. Of course, it was not mine. Such a good email could only be written by a genius copy-writer. My genius is in infrastructure. Still, very criticised, by the way... That text, with the few modern touches was written more than 110 years ago. And still absolutely valid. And still creates emotions impossible to ignore. I hope that you learnt something and that generated in you the will to become that leader. If you do want it. If you want to success in your...
8 days ago • 1 min read
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art. In literature. In music. In industry. Even in infrastructure advisory. The reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also...
9 days ago • 2 min read